중앙데일리

Cumulative mileage 62,337,195km equivalent to 80 roundtrips from the earth to the moon per month.

Airport Railroad (AREX) connecting Incheon International Airport Terminal 1 and 2 Station from Seoul Station marks its 11th anniversary on the 23rd. The accumulated number of passengers having used AREX for the past 11 years is 470 million, which is equivalent to the number of Koreans who use AREX 9.2 times each. The cumulative mileage is 62,337,195km, which is equivalent to 1,300 laps around the earth (46,250km) and 80 round trips from the earth to the moon (383,000km).

AREX opened the first section from Incheon International Airport Station to Gimpo Airport Station on March 23, 2007 and the 2nd section from Gimpo Airport Station to Seoul Station on December 29, 2010. It has also been operating 13 stations in succession including Gongdeok Station (2011), Cheongna International City Station (2014), Yeongjong Station (2016) and Incheon International Incheon Airport Terminal 2 Station(2018).

The average number of passengers on a daily basis has increased by 17 times compared to the first year of the opening in 2007, with 226,117 visitors per day. On December 22 of the last year, the maximum number of passengers reached 274,904 per day, recording the fourth largest number of passengers.

Among the 13 stations of AREX marking its 11th anniversary, the station with the largest number of visitors was Gimpo Airport Station, which is used by 82,000 people a day, followed by Hongik Univ. Station (60,000 people per day) and Seoul Station (59,000 people per day).

The section people use most is from Gimpo Airport to Gyeyang Station, which is used by 18,000 people a day, followed by the section from Gimpo Airport Station to Geonam Station (13,000 per day), and from Gimpo Airport Station to Seoul Station (9,000 per day).

In particular, the number of foreign passengers using AREX, a representative airport railroad connecting Incheon and Gimpo International Airport, increases every year as the number is 3,056,115 for the last year. The accumulated number of foreign passengers reached 15.84 million for the past 11 years.

In addition, at Seoul Station City Airport Terminal, where check-in service is available for international flight passenger, in average 697 passengers a day are using the service and the rate of foreigners is 55.9%.

Kim Han-young, the president of AREX, said, "Although AREX started with people’s concerns due to insufficient demand of transportation at the beginning, we established the 2020 long-term management strategy and have achieved remarkable growth for the last 11 years,” adding that "AREX, which is rapidly growing in the fields of safety, service and management, will do its best to happily keep accompanying with customers.”

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